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On The 405 Today:

Reviews

Woods - Review Link
Barn Owl - Review Link
Hot Head Show - Review Link
Gregory Alan Isakov - Review Link

New Music
Flying Lotus - Review Link
Little Deadman - Review Link
James & Evander - Review Link
Kanye West - Review Link
Chad Valley - Review Link
Kurt Vile - Review Link
Razika - Link

Features
Tellison - Review Link


Videos
Chad Valley - Review Link
Metronomy - Review Link


Other
All our news can be found here!

Favorite albums of 2010

http://pics.livejournal.com/deastra/pic/00054frx

1. Shearwater - The Golden Archipelago

http://pics.livejournal.com/deastra/pic/00056d50

2. Loreena McKennitt - The Wind That Shakes The Barley

http://pics.livejournal.com/deastra/pic/00055e67

3. Agnes Obel - Philharmonics

http://pics.livejournal.com/deastra/pic/000573ck

4. Marina & the Diamonds - The Family Jewels

5. Smoke Fairies - Through Low Light And Trees

6. Lissie - Catching A Tiger

7. Kingfisher Sky - Skin Of The Earth

8. Tarja - What Lies Beneath


Artist of the year

Newly discovered: Shearwater
Debut (with album): Agnes Obel, Marina & the Diamonds


Musical genre of the year

Newly discovered: alternative folk & alternative country


Song of the year

Tremble (Acoustic Version) by Charlotte Martin.

Honorable mentions: Shearwater - Black Eyes, Agnes Obel - Katie Cruel, Janelle Monáe - Cold War, Delain - Start Swimming…

Fri 5 Mar – Gregory Alan Isakov

Gregory wanted to put on a good Folk show and by Darwin he did. I only managed to catch the final three acts including Gregory but the two I saw before him were fantastic. Great classic Folk instrumentation. Acoustic guitar, harmonica, lead vocals, and beautiful folksy backup singers in cowboy boots. It doesn't get better than that.

Gregory's set was incredible even though they didn't play Big Black Car. He didn't play with his traditional band. The drummer and cellist were both missing but he still had Jeb up there rocking out. His traditional drummer is incredibly talented so at first I was a little disappointed because it's always fun to see such an incredible musician although the more simple percussion opened up a lot of space in the songs and that was necessary given the new instrumentation. There was a keyboard player, violin, acoustic guitar, lead guitar, banjo, stand up bass, and an incredibly small drum set. …

A chilly start to the year combined with snow woes= tracks to will the cold away

1. Loved You All Along by La Strada
2. Something Unreal by Ex Norwegian
3. Evelyn McHale by Parenthetical Girls
4. The Trouble With Flying by Orba Squara
5. Nobody Told Me by Barzin
6. Lovers' Carvings by Bibio
7. Gone Man by Eels
8. Used To Be by Beach House
9. The Blizzard by Camera Obscura
10. That Moon Song by Gregory Alan Isakov
11. Eviction Party by The Darlings
12. Is Love Forever by Spoon
13. Simple Joys (Feat. Simon LeBon) by Beautiful Small Machines
14. Heaven Can Wait by Charlotte Gainsbourg
15. Skinny Dippin' by Essex Chanel
16. The Things That People Make, Part 2 by The Burning Hell
17. One Long Country Song by Deleted Scenes
18. Robots by Dan Mangan
19. Down By the Water by The Drums
20. White Sky by Vampire Weekend
21. Take it Easy by Surfer Blood
22. Calcium Commuter by Boat
23. Tugboat by Citay

Another problem with last.fm is that even while you try to keep track of new discoveries for further listening, the new discoveries accumulate faster than you can listen. Which is more important to a listener: depth or breadth?


December
The Cave Singers


September
Un Rodo Cora


September
Antiqcool
No, Really


August
Ian & Sylvia


Summer

Take the 50 top artists in your musical profile, and create a cloud of the similar artists that are not in your top 50. The result is a collection of highly recommended artists for your personal profile. You can generate your own cloud (in BBCode) at http://anthony.liekens.net/pub/scripts/last.fm/recommend.php

My recommendations are:

10,000 Maniacs Alexi Murdoch Amos Lee Ben Harper Bob Dylan Bon Iver Bonnie Raitt Brandi Carlile Brett Dennen Damien Jurado Damien Rice Deer Tick Erin McKeown Great Lake Swimmers Griffin House Iron & Wine and Calexico J. …

"Hidden Treasures" Category - Less than 1.000.000 plays on Last.fm
1. The War On Drugs - Wagonwheel Blues (Adam Granduciel & Kurt Vile playing their guitars)
2. William Elliott Whitmore - Animals In The Dark (If you want to know anything about death, just ask mr.Whitmore!)
3. Jay Farrar & Benjamin Gibbard - One Fast Move or I'm Gone-Music from Kerouac's Big Sur (Words: Jack Kerouac Music: Jay Farrar & Ben Gibbard - it's hard to beat that combination!)
4. A.A.Bondy - When The Devil's Loose (On American Hearts Bob Dylan is poppin' up from time to time, and this one recalls Ryan Adams from Heartbreaker phase! The influences could not be better! )
5. Dave Rawlings Machine - A Friend Of A Friend {A friend (Dave Rawlings) of a friend (Gillian Welch) is my friend too!}
6. Kurt Vile - God Is Saying This To You? (experimental + sense for melody)
7. Antje Duvekot - The Near Demise Of The High Wire Dancer (reminds me of Nanci Griffith) (EU)
…

"Hidden Treasures" Category - Less than 1.000.000 plays on Last.fm
1. The War On Drugs - Wagonwheel Blues (Adam Granduciel & Kurt Vile playing their guitars)
2. William Elliott Whitmore - Animals In The Dark (If you want to know anything about death, just ask mr.Whitmore!)
3. Jay Farrar & Benjamin Gibbard - One Fast Move or I'm Gone-Music from Kerouac's Big Sur (Words: Jack Kerouac Music: Jay Farrar & Ben Gibbard - it's hard to beat that combination!)
4. A.A.Bondy - When The Devil's Loose (On American Hearts Bob Dylan is poppin' up from time to time, and this one recalls Ryan Adams from Heartbreaker phase! The influences could not be better! )
5. Dave Rawlings Machine - A Friend Of A Friend {A friend (Dave Rawlings) of a friend (Gillian Welch) is my friend too!}
6. Kurt Vile - God Is Saying This To You? (experimental + sense for melody)
7. Antje Duvekot - The Near Demise Of The High Wire Dancer (reminds me of Nanci Griffith) (EU)
…

Started the year with catching up on some of the albums iv'e totally missed over the last years, with no respect. The unique psychedelic woodcuter americana of Midlake - The Trials Of Van Occupanther is probably one of the decade's strongest records, too bad what iv'e heard of their 2010 follow-up seems a bit dull in comparison. The other album iv'e totally ignored in 2008 is my fellow Swede: The Tallest Man on Earth - Shallow Grave An impressive Dylanish one-man-restortion singer/songwriter that in swedish comparison stands out by faar.

In a way I have reinvented myself this year in terms of, partly abandoning the mellow americana or catchy indie i adored during 2008. Though the V/A album Dark Was The Night is the collar that gilds my last years suit. I've also rediscovered the Hardcore and alternative metal scene, with sound-surprising new discovers. It gets to me that in such a retrograde genre there are changes and I think that change has just started. …